Talking About Learning Disability

Bullying of People with a Learning Disability

Bullying of People with a Learning Disability Lesson 4 Bullying of People with a Learning Disability Learning Intentions for Lesson 4: To feel empathy for those who have been bullied because of their learning disability. To develop an understanding of other people’s responsibilities and reactions to the bullying of people with learning disabilities. To develop an understanding of what a disablist bullying incident looks like and an awareness that disablist bullying can be a crime.   Reduced to four learning intensions as opposed to five – perhaps consider splitting activities between two lesson, that is, lesson 5 and 6 as there may be too many learning intentions for one lesson.

Bullying of People with A Learning Disability Activity 1: Sink or Swim Watch the film clip This is a true story about Lucy, a young person with Down’s Syndrome. Lucy is a champion swimmer, but unfortunately she gets bullied on the way home from swimming. Now have a go at the following task: CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW Why Discussion (for example, might want to talk around the fact that the girl who was bullied could not have done anything differently, she was a victim, the bullies themselves should not have engaged in such behaviours, friends of bullies could have stuck up for victim, bus driver did intervene, other adults could have intervened etc).

Sink or Swim Activity 2 Group discussion Take a copy of the Sink or Swim questions so that you can confer with your group. No need to take notes. What is your initial reaction to the video? Gut Reaction What do the teenagers on the bus have to say about Lucy? What do the teenagers have to say to Lucy? What comments do the teenagers make about one another? Why do you think the teenagers behave the way they do? Why Discussion (for example, might want to talk around the fact that the girl who was bullied could not have done anything differently, she was a victim, the bullies themselves should not have engaged in such behaviours, friends of bullies could have stuck up for victim, bus driver did intervene, other adults could have intervened etc). The Bullies

Sink or Swim What do you think the other passengers on the bus were thinking as the incident took place? Why do you think they didn’t react to the ‘bullies’? Passengers What action does the bus driver take? How does the woman on the bus try to help Lucy? The Helpers How do you think Lucy was feeling on her bus journey? What thoughts are going through Lucy’s head as she heads home? How do you think she is feeling? Lucy Why Discussion (for example, might want to talk around the fact that the girl who was bullied could not have done anything differently, she was a victim, the bullies themselves should not have engaged in such behaviours, friends of bullies could have stuck up for victim, bus driver did intervene, other adults could have intervened etc). How did you feel watching what happened to Lucy? You

Disability Hate Crime Lucy was bullied just because she had a learning disability. What happened to Lucy was a disability hate crime. In Scotland, a disability hate crime is ‘any crime which the victim or any other person thinks was motivated by malice or ill will based on a person’s disability or perceived disability.’ If no crime has been committed but something has happened which the victim or any other person thinks has happened as a result of a person’s disability then this is defined as a disability hate incident. It can be difficult to decide if a hate crime or incident has been committed. If the victim or any other person thinks the incident was ‘motivated by malice or ill will’ it should be reported to the Police so that it can be recorded and investigated. The Police will decide if a crime has been committed.

Disability hate crimes/incidents Disability hate crimes or incidents can take place anywhere and take many different forms of behaviour CLICK TO VIEW RESPONSES name calling threatening or physical harassment public ridicule Teacher has list of examples what constitutes disability related bullying Name calling; spaz, idiot, spastic, moron etc, Being ignored, overlooked and treated as if invisible Ill-informed, insensitive or patronising comments (albeit sometimes well intentioned) behaviour such as being asked intrusive questions about their impairment or ‘jokes’ like do you have a licence for wheelchair?, does he take sugar in his tea?) Threatening or actual physical harassment such as invasion of physical space, physical- punching, kicking etc disablist jokes, insults and comments; spreading rumours about person or family;, damaging property e.g. wheelchair, Theft - taking belongings e.g. money, phone, crutches; mental/emotional- left out of things, ignored, patronised (good discussion point- is this bullying?) Public ridicule e.g., imitating an individual’s manner of speech or movement, make pictures mocking them, doctoring photos; cyber- internet/facebook) Sexual harassment exploitation insults and comments damaging property disablist jokes theft

Activity 3 Open Discussion Lucy’s Rights Activity 3 Open Discussion Lucy had the right to feel safe on the bus. What do you think a good bus journey for Lucy would have looked like?

Success Criteria for Lessons 4 I am developing: empathy for those who have been bullied because of their learning disability. an understanding of the impact of bullying on people with learning disabilities. I am aware that disablist bullying can be a crime.